Mumbai based technology shopping company Shopsense has raised an undisclosed amount of funding in a round led by Kae Capital with participation from Jeehan Mehta and group of angels from Powai Lake Ventures. The funds raised will be used for technology enhancement and to hire development team.
While the amount invested in the company is not known, Kae Capital says it typically invests in pre-Series A stage with per deal ticket size pegged between $200,000 and $500,000.
Founded in 2012 by Farooq Adam, Harsh Shah and Sreeraman MG, Shopsense provides retailers with technology products to engage consumers. One of the product Shopsense offers is called Match, where it sets up a kiosk with a touchscreen display. Users can browse through products, create custom styles, among others with the kiosk. Once done with customizing, users can email themselves the final custom design. The company claims that it conducted a pilot for its technology at the Diesel store in Mumbai developed user experience and interface for Big Bazaar Direct. (Check out the Demo video)
The company also offers other products such as React which can be installed on a wall and engage with consumers, and Explorer, which is an app that lets users navigate through products & stores. Currently, only Match is live.
Offline-online shopping experience: Kiosk based offering to create customer engagement is nothing new. Previously companies have tried similar solutions in order to boost sales. However, it’s not exactly clear whether such solutions translate into sales as we don’t remember any previous campaigns continuing for a very long period. Companies have pegged such campaigns as “Promotional” campaigns.
Onward Mobility, have used the brick and mortar retail model for selling content like mobile apps. PlanetM, the chain of retail stores that offer music, mobile phones and other gadgets, had also announced plans to start selling mobile apps for all major smartphones, last year. Spice group’s mobile retail chain HotSpot had also started selling memory cards with pre-installed content including movies, wallpapers and ringtones, across its network of stores; T-Series has been selling content on USB drives as well. We’ve also seen some other companies running kiosks across retail chains like Shoppers Stop, offering music, videos and app downloads via a computer terminal, through catalogs.
Network18 owned Homeshop18 had launched a virtual wall named ‘Scan N Shop’ at the Terminal 3 (T3) domestic side of New Delhi’s-IGI Airport (IGIA). The virtual wall offered consumers the ability to order by scanning the QR code displayed against each item or over the phone at the call center.
